Pages: 393
Published: 2nd May 2019
Genre: Young Adult
Content warnings: Child death, drugs
Arty has always lived in the Clearing, a commune hidden in the forests of south India. But her happy life, separate from the rest of the world, is shattered after a terrible event. For the first time, Arty must leave her home, and head into the intriguing but frightening outside world. On the streets of India, a chance encounter leads to her becoming an unwilling overnight celebrity.
As she embarks on her journey, she discovers she is being followed by thousands of strangers, who seem to know her every move. Forced to fight against mysterious hashtags and being constantly photographed, how can she find the help she desperately needs? Everything is changing too fast for this girl who came out of the woods… could she be running into a trap?
This is an original and uplifting story that provides a large dose of escapism while also packing an emotional punch. With an endearing main character and some whimsical elements along the way, it takes you on a powerful and at times unpredictable journey which grows more profound to the extent that by the end, you are left to reflect upon a rather fantastic read.
As far as concepts go, Emily Barr always brings exciting ones to the young adult genre, though the execution has had a tendency to be slightly hit and miss. However, this time she gets it spot on with a typically international flavour and an engaging plot that makes you genuinely care about those at its heart, while there are also tense dual narratives to keep us intrigued.
There is a healthy balance struck between the lighter moments and the more serious stuff; ideal for this book’s audience. As we see Arty and Zeus discover the outside world and enter human civilisation for the first time in their lives, it is fun to experience their amazement at the things that almost anyone else would take for granted, while also realising the fear they feel after being removed from everything they know. That is intelligently set against the tragedy of what happens to their family, and how vulnerable they are.
This latter point is explored well using the theme of social media, and as soon as the two of them leave the forest the sense of unreality and displacement comes across extremely well on the page. Everything they see is a new phenomenon and to see the world through Arty’s eyes is not only enjoyable, but it gives you a real appreciation for her perspective.
Her enthusiasm for things such as books and cricket is infectious too, and the friendships she strikes up with Cherry and the Bollywood star AMK are lovely to read. All the while, Arty has an instinct to run away whenever she comes into contact with authority, which is understandable given the losses she has suffered and her own personal mission to reunite with Zeus and make contact with her surviving family.
These travels around Mumbai are as entertaining as they are spontaneous, yet we know that they are not going to last forever. The last third of the story has an altogether different tone and pace, but this is also where it truly earns its stripes as Arty is thrown into another new setting and is introduced to a whole different lifestyle.
To discover how emotional it gets is such a pleasant surprise. By this point you are super invested in Arty’s journey that you fear the changes in her life could harm her, especially when you factor in the seemingly sinister nature of the other timeline. In the alternating chapters we see that someone is being held against their will and is experiencing all kinds of visions, and the identity of this person and their supposed captor is something that keeps us guessing for most of the way.
It makes you think there is a chance that Arty might walk into a trap and find herself in danger, but that subtle feeling of trepidation is replaced by joy and warmth at the new relationships she develops. While the explanation for the other timeline might be seen by some as a tad problematic, it gives way to a very happy ending where the found family trope that underpins the book shines brightest.
The India setting is totally vibrant, capturing the frenzy of Mumbai with Arty’s overwhelmed reaction to everything around her and the many different faces of the city such as tourism and its film industry. There are clear juxtapositions made between here and the clearing where she grows up, as well as the grey English seaside location where she spends the latter part of the story. All of this helps it to retain a certain freshness and allows us to see Arty broaden her horizons even more.
There are lots of good ideas on show here too, such as the recurring toy bear and all the occupants of the clearing taking on the names of gods and goddesses, giving them the hint of spirituality. For some small things you are left waiting for a payoff, which means it is even more satisfying when they are revisited, such as the naming of the clearing’s resident monkeys after the characters from Friends.
Overall, this is a charming read that grows all the more tremendous as it unravels, with the mystery of the dual timelines offering dark undertones in conjunction with Arty’s exciting yet high stakes journey. The development of both characters and plot is superb, but ultimately it is that extra injection of emotional energy during the final act that elevates it to top-level status.
As mentioned in the review, my experiences with Emily Barr’s young adult novels have been varied, but this is her best one and then some. I absolutely loved it, and out of my 2024 reads so far, it goes down as one of the biggest revelations.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Stephen Reads Books 